Cougars press North girls into key mistakes

"I told them they were playing stupid," said Richmond, getting right to the point.

The Cougars must have listened well. Vance forced North Davidson into 11 turnovers during an amazing 31-7 run in the third quarter on the way to a 70-48 victory in the west sectional No. 2 semifinals Wednesday night in Pete Jones Gymnasium.

"We got out to an 11-2 lead in the first period and then we relaxed," said Richmond, whose team is now 17-11 overall as the No. 2 seed out of the ME-CA-8 Conference. "We were playing in a hurry instead of playing quick.

"But the third quarter was indicative of how we've played the last two weeks. We're peaking at the right time."

The Knights, who finished the season 13-12 overall as the No. 2 seed from the Central Piedmont Conference, played well in the first half. After falling behind early, the Knights rallied back behind post players Lara Stevens and Lauren Walters, eventually taking a 30-25 lead at halftime with some good play under the boards.

Then came the decisive third quarter.

The Cougars started the period with a steal and a basket by Monique Dawson. And that was just the beginning. An intense pressing defense forced the Knights into a series of turnovers that became easy transition baskets for Vance. Less than four minutes later, the Cougars had converted a 30-25 deficit into a 44-32 lead.

"We just had a real hard time breaking their press," said North Davidson coach Kim Payne. "And when we did break it, we couldn't score.

"The thing is, they were using the very same press in the first half. We just didn't handle it well. Vance is very athletic anyway, and I thought they came out with a little more intensity than we did.

"And they were very, very quick. They might be one of the better teams we've seen this year.

"I was proud of our effort, but we couldn't execute when we needed to."

North was plagued by ball-handling mistakes the entire game, committing 29 turnovers.

Richmond said he didn't know anything about the Knights coming into the game.

"I heard the league they were in wasn't very strong," Richmond said. "But I didn't know anything about North. I didn't get a scouting report on them, but I thought we could adjust as the game went on.

"I was a little surprised that they pressed us, because I could see in the first two minutes that we were quicker than they were. Not many people press us, and our eyes light up when we see a press."

Payne, meanwhile, felt her team completed a good year.

"I'm pleased with the season we had," said Payne, who finished her 11th year with North. "We won the conference tournament, and that's the first time we've done that since I've been coaching here.

"And I thought we had both individual improvement and team improvement over the season."